Slowly, then all at once
by the lola
Summary: 'But this is his life, he tells himself then and he tells himself again when he meets her properly for the first time. She is beautiful - he's always known that much, but her olive eyes are so empty. His heart twinges for the first time in years when she shakes his hand, out of guilt or fear or something else, he does not know.'


**Word Count: **796

**Challenge/Competition: **Secret Battle & The Fault in Our Stars

**Prompts: **(secret battle, secret prompts - will add after the round) & 'I fell in love with you the way you fall asleep: Slowly, and then all at once'

**Warnings: **None

**Disclaimer:** I don't claim to own Harry Potter, it's all JKR's.

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Being a Malfoy is a forever nightmare for Draco. The second of his birth, tied into heavy chains of expectations - be everything or don't be a Malfoy. Years upon years surpassed him while he settled into these binds purely to stop them from digging in, so many years where he was nothing but a shell saturated with darkness and Malfoy.

And then he is told about Astoria. Another chain, and his emptiness deepens, his shell threatens to crack. It makes him swell with a longing for escape. To be alone, to experience the world, to finally be able to breathe. Marrying at nineteen, it is almost unfathomable to him.

But this is his life, he tells himself then and he tells himself again when he meets her properly for the first time. She is beautiful - he's always known that much, but her olive eyes are so empty. His heart twinges for the first time in years when she shakes his hand, out of guilt or fear or something else, he does not know.

He is uneasy as the elves stand watching them, and she is terrified - he sees it in her every fiber. He can almost see the chains wound around her body, pulling her into her rigid and unmoving posture. They sit across her dining room table, making small talk. She answers his questions and asks none of her own - the _perfect pureblood wife_, his father would say.

'So this is it,' Draco finally says, drawing his hands into fists on the silvery table cloth.

'What do you mean?' she replies, eyes cast on the floor.

'I am your forever. You are my forever. Terrifying, isn't it?'

He watches as her chest rises with her sharp, deep breath. 'I suppose.'

And everything seems utterly dire. He leaves.

He has to make the effort, his mother tells him. And so he takes her on countless surprise dates, each one aimed at gauging where her interests lie, and he finds by the growing sparkles in her eyes that she has so many. The Quidditch game, fancy restaurants and jewellery shopping earns him polite smiles, small talk and some handholding. But the zoo, the museum, the gallery and the random cafe incites an excited stream of chatter, a fire in her eyes, debates, and many kisses.

She tells him of her burning desire to explore the world, and he tells her his desire of escape. It kind of tumbles out of his mouth, it's something he's never told anybody before. But he then realises that this shared desire may be what has brought them together, and her soft face and sympathetic eyes make him know that she is the right person to have shared that with.

Astoria is bursting with life, he finds, and it might just be the best thing that he ever discovers. One day she turns up at his house, picnic basket in hand and drags him down to a large field filled with wildflowers and complete with a calm and clear lake at the end. It's so stupidly simple and the wind is bringing a chill to the spring day but it's perfect - Astoria taking the lead shows just how much things have changed.

Her coffee-coloured hair is scraped back into a high ponytail with sunglasses on top, she wears a loose fitting gray dress and sandals, and Draco admires her in this moment. He feels like this is the true Astoria, and this is a woman he is happy to spend the rest of his life with.

'I love you,' he says, the words falling out of his mouth before he's even thought them. He fills with tension as she studies him with her twinkly green eyes.

'I love you too,' she replies, a smile playing on her lips, 'never thought I'd be saying that.'

He raises an eyebrow and attempts a stern face, which quickly dissolves when she plants a kiss on his lips.

The wedding day finally comes, and yes they're young and yes they're terrified but it's not nearly the nightmare it presented itself as originally. It's not the small and private affair they'd wanted, but it's still their wedding day. It's the best day of Draco's life to date. And when that magical bind is completed, he feels his chains fall off. His commitment is no longer to the Malfoy's, it is to her.

They lie in their honeymoon bed, she traces his face with her fingertips. 'So this is it,' she says.

He mumbles sleepily in reply, opening his eyes.

'I am your forever. You are my forever. Terrifying, isn't it?' Astoria asks, laughter in her voice.

Smiling, he pulls her on top of him and into a kiss. 'Not at all.'

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**AN: **Reviews and favourites are lovely and much appreciated!


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